Inside Texas Politics: Children at the Border

On this week's edition of WFAA-TV's Inside Texas Politics, I talked with host Jason Whitely and Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Bob Ray Sanders about last week's announcement that UT-Austin President Bill Powers will step down next June as well as the history of the conflict at Texas' flagship university; also, we touched on the $5 million grant from BP given to Gov. Rick Perry's office in the aftermath of the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill — it's been sitting, unspent and unused, in Texas coffers collecting interest, and BP wants it back.

We also talked about Republicans leaders clamoring for President Obama to visit the border amid a surge of unaccompanied children — the president, visiting Texas last week, rejected such a gesture as a "photo opportunity"; whether the immigration crisis is helping Perry remake his image; Democratic nominee for governor Wendy Davis' town hall meetings hitting Republican opponent Greg Abbott over his recent statements about hazardous chemicals warehoused around the state; Davis' careful distancing of herself from the president during his Texas visit; and the Republican National Committee's choosing Cleveland over Dallas for its 2016 national convention.

Also: Bud and Bob Ray interview Dallas attorney and immigration law expert Mary Elizabeth Cedillo-Pereira, who offers a look at some of the legal processes those children arriving at our border will go through; Bud talks with Dallas City Council member Dwaine Caraway about his program that takes gang members out of their neighborhoods and shows them the city they live in and the choices they might make; whether those kids at the border should be treated as refugees or illegal immigrants is debated; and one commenter says how we treat those children defines us as a nation.